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Photo#1514526
Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus
Copyright © 2018 John van der Linden

Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus
Chattahoochie Park, Winneshiek County, Iowa, USA
April 25, 2018
04/25/18 For the second straight day, chickadees are attracted the catkins of a poplar tree (Populus sp.); I watch one chickadee catch an insect on the wing, and both of them seem to be picking at something in the catkins. I examine several catkins that had fallen off the tree and landed on the ground beneath it; no obvious insects present. Then I got distracted for a moment while holding a catkin, looked back at it, and I'll be darned if a super cryptic black-and-white-banded larva hadn't just crawled out of the catkin onto my hand while I wasn't looking. Upon collecting a bunch of fallen catkins, I find several more of these larvae hiding in them.

Head capsule makes me think lep, but there's no obvious legs or prolegs, so...I'm not really even sure about order for this one yet.

Batch rearing in progress

Images of this individual: tag all
Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus Cryptic larvae in poplar catkins - Dorytomus mucidus
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Contributed by John van der Linden on 30 April, 2018 - 1:42pm
Last updated 12 June, 2024 - 6:48pm

Comments

Moved
Moved from Dorytomus.
… v belov, 12 June, 2024 - 6:48pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Beetles.
… v belov, 1 August, 2018 - 4:21pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… John van der Linden, 19 June, 2018 - 1:51pm login or register to post comments

Weevil?
I don't see adfrontal sutures on the head, so I don't think these can be leps. The combination of a prominent head capsule plus no legs or prolegs suggests weevil (or other beetle?) larvae, but I admit that I am way outside of my usual line of country here.
… Terry Harrison, 2 May, 2018 - 7:10pm login or register to post comments

 
Hi Terry
Thank you for weighing in. Could you help me understand the term "adfrontal suture"? Our BG glossary isn't much help, and the only explanations I could find online defined this term (understandably) in relation to other nearby body parts whose names were also unfamiliar to me :-o It sounds like a really useful "field mark" to be able to recognize.
… John van der Linden, 2 May, 2018 - 8:38pm login or register to post comments

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